Two reasons why I’m featuring this on the front page and not in the DVD Blog in the Zone.
First, with the impending release of RENO 911! MIAMI, it is no surprise that Paramount/Comedy Central has released a “best of” compilation as a sort of primer for anyone interested in seeing where the film comes from.
Second, I recently wrote a not-particularly-nice review for NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, which was written by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant. I’m sure other hands were on the script; it’s inevitable working at Fox on a $100-million-plus family holiday movie. But their names were on it, and I was not-particularly-nice because they’ve written a few really plastic mainstream comedies that I think are directly antithetical to what they do when the projects are under their complete control.
I get it. I really do. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM made $200 million plus in the US. That’s astonishing, because it’s a truly bad movie. I can’t imagine there was word of mouth... but there must have been. Somebody enjoyed that film. And it was good for a number of careers. Ben Stiller once again appears to be charmed. Shawn Levy is solid gold. And Lennon and Garant can do whatever they want at Comedy Central because they don’t need the work. RENO 911! is not a money gig for them. I doubt anyone gets rich making it. But it is genuinely, consistently funny as shit, and it appears to be a pleasure for good comedians. The show is comedian bait. They get guest appearances from everyone. People do epic three minute bits and get to go as crazy as they want to. Thanks to COPS-style pixellation, some people appear over and over as different people being arrested. Even the show’s regulars play other roles at times. It’s just a big playground for comic character actors to work and riff off each other and try to be as funny as possible. To me, this is what good comedy is all about right now. There’s this incredible talent pool of performers in LA, as healthy as the comedy scene has been in the whole 17 years I’ve lived here... and thanks to certain movie producers coughjuddapatowcough and certain channels coughcomedycentralcough right now, these people all seem to be crossing over and working together in various configurations, just plain exciting to watch.
So that’s why I get irritated sometimes when confronted with a NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM for review. I know how good these guys are. For example, in the very first scene on the very first episode in this “best of” package, Lennon and Garant are riding together, camera shooting the two of them as they talk.
The radio’s on, and a DJ says “Name every single musical by Stephen Sondheim and win two free tickets to the Amy Grant concert at the El Dorado theater.”
Lennon leans forward, turns it off.
LENNON: Oh, my god, that is such a gimme. Hit the lights. Let’s find a phone. That is so easy. INTO THE WOODS. SWEENEY TODD. A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Uh... WEST SIDE STORY.
GARANT: Uh, no, I thought Leonard Bernstein wrote WEST SIDE STORY.
LENNON: No, well, he, he did, but the lyrics are actually b—- TRAVIS!
AIRBAG! Opening credits.
Awesome. I love these characters. Travis Junior. Raineesha Williams. Jim Dangle. James Garcia. Jonesy. Clem. Weigel. And I really like this group of actors together. Garant, Lennon, and Kerri Kenney have history together, of course, and they’ve always been rock solid. But the addition of the great Cedric Yarbrough, Carlos Alazraqui, Niecy Nash, Wendy McLendon-Covey and, in later seasons, Mary Birdsong really rounds this show out in ways THE STATE never managed. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the show more if you were ever a COPS addict, as I was, because this show absolutely understands why someone might have ever been a COPS addict. It remains one of my favorite “reality shows” of all time because of the pure simplicity of the format. Cops. Arresting people. It doesn’t get any easier to understand. And at its very best, RENO 911! manages the same kind of effortless flow of lunacy. Like COPS, it’s designed to basically run forever. As long as there are naked morons on too many drugs running loose in this world, there is fodder for comedy for this cast.
When the front of the disc says “UNCENSORED,” it’s language they’re referring to. Obviously all the nudity is still pixellated, and in many cases, that’s a good thing, I’m sure. The language thing is a nice choice because the shows were always shot with plenty of foul language, and it was just beeped for effect. With the beeps lifted out, I think the show plays naturally. It’s not like there’s a ton of it just for shock effect. It’s all still used as comic punctuation, and there’s no overestimating the impact of a well-timed “FREEZE, MOTHERFUCKER!”
I watched two out of the seven episodes, “Scavenger Hunt” and “Rick From Citizen Patrol.” The first one is a great concept episode, and the second features a guest appearance by Paul Reubens, which pretty much makes it a must-see for me. Both episodes were strong examples of why the show works, balancing a storyline for the episode and the random insanity that makes it great. Also included here are “Homeland Security Pt. 1 and 2,” “Reverend Gigg LeCarp,” “Officer Smiley,” and “Reading Ron.” There’s also a montage called “Top 10 Calls” that is just a quick hit list of set-ups and pay-offs, a very funny ten-or-so minutes. Finally, there’s a live performance by the cast doing a song called “Don’t Steal Cable.” I like that they all do appearances together in character, and even doing a song like this, they manage to bring it back to a character joke for the punchline.
I don’t think I’d ever go out and track down every single episode of this the way I do with some shows. I never intentionally seek it out on TV, either. But I’m glad I have this collection, and it definitely did the job of making me want to see the movie as soon as possible. Evil Corporate Synergy accomplished, I suppose.
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Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
